


High Under the Bleachers

by silentassassin21



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: F/F, Female Homosexuality, Kinda fluff, Not Canon Compliant, Recreational Drug Use, Sexual Tension, Skipping class AU, Slow Burn, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-24 03:46:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4904341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentassassin21/pseuds/silentassassin21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mandy doesn't want to go to English, Karen doesn't want to go to History.</p>
            </blockquote>





	High Under the Bleachers

**Author's Note:**

> I am complete Kandy trash, so here's my first ever thing involving that pairing
> 
> They don't actually get high under the bleachers, it's just a much better title than 'High in the Girls' Bathroom'

The bell rang, bringing Mandy back to reality. Unfortunately, that reality included an English test. 

She he stood up and walked to her locker, staring at her English textbook. Then she shut it again and started to walk down the hall, dodging students and avoiding teachers. That wasn't difficult with no one paying attention to her, as usual, but she was still careful to not let anyone see her face properly as she sped down the hallway.

There were multiple places she could go. The back of the oval, the playground beside the school, an empty classroom. But then she remembered that time that one of her brothers had told her that the bathroom's in the P.E. block were always vacant. So she went there.

As they said, no one was in there and, if the lights being off and fresh toilet paper in all the stalls was anything to go by, no one had been in there for a while. She hopped onto the basin and heard the warning bell go. She stood up carefully and reached for the latch that opened the small window right underneath the ceiling. When her fingers didn't come close to reaching it, she let one of her feet leave the cracked plastic basin as she reached further.

"Stand on one of the toilets," a voice said, nearly causing Mandy to fall before she grabbed onto the sharp edge of one of the mirrors. She swore as she felt it stinging and saw small droplets of blood leaving the small cut.

She turned around to see the stranger who had nearly made her crack her head on the tiles. The girl was probably her age, maybe a little older, and had soft blonde hair that fell loosely against her shoulders. She was dressed nicely, too nicely for someone who went to this meth-lab of a school.

"What?" Mandy asked, crouching down on the basin and sitting on it. The girl sat beside her and offered a tissue to help with the blood, which Mandy accepted.

"If you stand on that toilet -" the girl said, pointing to the cubicle furthest from the door. "- You can unlatch the window easily."

Mandy couldn't help the surprise showing on her face at this knowledge. It seemed like this girl was pretty experienced at this.

The girl hopped off the bench and did exactly what she just said, unlatching the window so it was open a crack with ease. When she was sitting beside Mandy again, she pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Mandy was more than a little shocked now. She would have never expected the girl to even be the cutting-class type, let alone the cutting-class-to-smoke-in-the-bathroom type. But instead of questioning it, she pulled out her own cigarette and lit it. Both of them sat on the basin in silence, the quiet release of breath being the only sound other than the faint rumble of noise from the basketball court outside.

"Why're you cutting?" the girl finally asked, filling the silence.

"English is bullshit," Mandy said, taking another drag. "You?"

"History is the stupidest subject invented. My mum made me do it," the girl said. Her neutral face was replaced with a smirking one. "If I fail, she promised I won't have to do it next year."

Mandy didn't know what it was like to have a parent force you into doing anything school related. Her dad always called her a fucking idiot for even staying in school this long. The only reason for a Milkovich to do sophomore year is because of probation. That's the only reason why, up until this year, Iggy was officially the most educated of them all.

The silence wasn't broken again until the bell rang, signalling the end of the day. The girl hopped off the basin and threw what was left of her cigarette in a toilet bowl. She smiled back at Mandy before leaving.

It took Mandy a minute before she left, realising at the last second that the girl had left her pale blue lighter behind. She grabbed it and stuffed it in her pocket, even though she didn't have the faintest idea why. Maybe a small part of her was hoping the girl would be back tomorrow to get it back.

\+ + +

Mandy found herself, for the hundredth time that day, reaching her hand into her jacket pocket to check the lighter was still there. She didn't know why she was so anxious to give it back. Normally she would have taken it and then claimed she had no idea what happened to it when someone asked.

The girl was already in the bathroom when she arrived, an unlit joint resting beneath her lip gloss coated lips. Without saying a word, Mandy sat beside her and passed back the lighter.

"Thanks," the girl said with a smile, flicking it and lighting her joint. The familiar smell of weed filled the air as she exhaled. Mandy went to open window, but saw the girl had already done it.

"You want in on this?" the girl asked, lifting the joint slightly higher. Mandy shrugged and took it between her fingers, bringing it to her lips. There was some excess lip gloss on it, but Mandy found she didn't mind as she inhaled some of the familiar substance. She titled her chin upwards slightly as she let the some leave her lips. Then she handed it back to the girl, who was smiling.

"Thanks," Mandy said, placing her hands against the edge of the basin.

"Sure," the girl said, taking a long drag before blowing smoke across the room. "Karen," she said, after a long stretch of silence. "Karen Jackson."

Mandy recognised the name. Karen Jackson had a reputation similar to her own, except she carved it all by herself. "Mandy Milkovich."

Neither of them knew why they felt the need to say their names, but it felt necessary somehow.

When Karen left after the bell rang, she smiled sweetly and said, "Bye, Mandy."

\+ + +

They continued to meet in the bathroom every time they had English/History, causing their grades in those classes to be non-existent. There were only a few words exchanged in their times in the bathroom, usually just goodbye's and asking if the other wanted to share whatever they were having. Until Karen got held back in Maths.

Mandy sat in the bathroom for nearly five minutes, smoking a cigarette by herself on the basin. When Karen finally came, she was out of breath and her face was tinged pink. "Sorry," she said. "Teacher's are dickheads."

Neither knew why that flicked a switch in them, but they became closer after Karen apologised for leaving Mandy alone. They talked more when they saw each other, usually about shitty dad's and bad hook-ups. Mandy hadn't realised this is what friendship was classified as until Karen came in one day with a bag of lollipops and offered Mandy one.

Instead of smoking whatever they found in their pockets at the time, they sucked on endless lollipops and talked about graffiti that was about them. Karen burst out laughing when she found out the 'Wall of Sex' in in the storage room at the other end of the school was created in Mandy's honour after she had slept with a really clingy junior a couple years ago.

"Go into the middle cubicle," Karen said. Mandy jumped off the basin and walked into it, scanning the walls until she found, in small black writing, the words _Karen Jackson is a skanky whore who should rot in the deepest depths of hell._

"Jeez," Mandy said as she exited, jumping back onto the basin.

"That is courtesy of someone who I told I was only going to have drunken sex with at a party and they didn't quite get the message," Karen explained with a grin Mandy could only describe as proud. Mandy laughed. Only in the Southside would you find a girl proud of having crude graffiti about her in a bathroom stall.

Mandy unwrapped the last lollipop in the packet, then immediately pulled it out as she made a face. "What the fuck is this?" she asked in disgust, inspecting the green-yellow hard candy in her hand.

Karen looked at the packet. "Apple-pineapple," she replied. She pulled her strawberries and cream one out of her mouth. "Wanna trade?" she offered.

"Definitely," Mandy said, exchanging her mess of a lollipop for Karen's. There was the faint taste of lip gloss on it when she popped it in her mouth. There was also the taste of a few different other flavours of lollipop on it too, like caramel and cola. It was a weird combination but it worked.

Mandy didn't realise she was staring at Karen until she tilted her head upwards. She pulled the lollipop out of her mouth, it now half-broken and she started chewing the remains that were in her mouth. There was a smile on her that made her seem out of it, like she was high.

When Karen turned and saw her stare, Mandy quickly broke her gaze. When she dared to look again, Karen was still looking at her. Then she was kissing her.


End file.
